


Exposure Therapy

by Defiler_Wyrm



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bucky Barnes Recovering, Flash Fic, Fluff and Angst, Gay Bucky Barnes, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Skin Hunger, Touch-Starved, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-21 17:53:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13746216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Defiler_Wyrm/pseuds/Defiler_Wyrm
Summary: The doctors call himtouch-aversebut the truth is he’s starving for it.





	Exposure Therapy

The doctors call him  _touch-averse_ but the truth is he’s starving for it. The truth is he aches for something he’s been taught he cannot have, and that’s nothing new: in another lifetime he was taught he couldn’t have another man’s touch the way he wanted, too.

But when it’s offered he feels his old bones shake so hard the metal in them rattles, and it leaves him shocked and reeling, on the verge of panic when Steve thinks the wrong thing and takes his hand away.

But fuck fear, fuck pain and all its lessons: he wants like a forest fire. With his heart in his throat he catches the retreating wrist and draws Steve’s hand to his cheek. The fingers curl around him and he can breathe again, like he’s been suffocating for decades. He turns his face into the palm because he can’t meet the fragile glass wonder on his friend’s face. Steve takes the hint, finally, and strokes deft fingers through his hair, traces the shell of his ear, the line of his neck.

It’s effervescent. It sings under his skin and lights up his blood, makes his battered heart beat quick. Wetness pricks at his eyes. He lets it gather and fall in silence; the only sound is their breath and the whisper of skin on skin.


End file.
